Jacques Derrida 'Structure, Sign and Play’: Structuralism

 

After new criticism and structuralism, the latest development in the technique of literary criticism is post structuralism or deconstruction. The concept of post structuralism provides a unique alternative to the concept of reality regarding man, society and universe. This theory of post structuralism was propounded by a French philosopher and critic Jacques Derrida (1930 -2004. He is the most commanding figure in the field of postmodern criticism. V. S. Seturaman writes:

Derrida may be considered the founder of deconstructive theory."

Jacques Derrida was a myriad minded man who has written critical works on philosophy, examining the contribution of Husserl, Kant, Nietzche, and Heidegger and so on. He has also explored the fields of literature, of anthology, of psychology and psycho-analysis, of linguistics and language philosophy. He has been considered as the father of theory of’ deconstruction'.

"Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" was a lecture presented at Johns Hopkins University on 21 October 1966 by Jacques Derrida.

WHAT IS DECONSTRUCTION THEORY?

During the first half of the 20th century, text was in the center and every reader had the same meaning. But when we move towards the second half of the 20th century, with Derrida, the center of the text is decentered and deconstructed. Now, the readers (not the text) have come in the center. So there are more than one centers. As a result, we acquire as many meanings as there are readers. This is called "free play of meaning". Derrida believes that a text does not have a fixity of meaning. On the other hand, it has potentials for multiple meanings because of "free play".

In order to understand this theory of deconstruction, we need to understand following key points explained b Derrida in his lecture:

1.   THE AUTHOR IS DEAD:

In the Post-Structuralist approach to textual analysis, the reader replaces the author as the primary subject of inquiry. Here the author is “dead”, he has no role to play in the “making of meaning”. Post Structuralist scholars try to examine other sources for meaning, i.e. readers, their cultural and social background, other literature etc. Hence, they believe that meaning does not come from the text or language. It comes from outside. And there is no consistency in the meaning. The reader interprets a work of art as per his own understanding, his own social, economic and cultural environment. As a result, meaning differs from a reader to reader.

Hence, the author's intended meaning is secondary to the meaning that the reader receives, and a literary text has no single meaning or existence. This leads to multiple meanings of the text which is the prime feature of post modernism.

 

2.   MEANING IS NOT FIXED:

Structuralists believed that meaning is absolute or fixed. But poststructuralists argue that nothing in modern world is fixed or stable, and meaning too is not fixed. Derrida says that meaning is changing constantly from place to place and from person to person. He gave the theory of “Difference”.

Difference = Differ + Defer

“Differ” means “Not same”.

“Defer” means “Something which continues”.

a)  Day

b)  Say

c)    Lay

In above three examples, the first letters of every word is “differ” (not same) and the last two letters “ay” are “defer” (continues). “Difference” is an amalgamation or mixture of “differ” and “defer”.

3.   PHILOSOPHY OF ABSENCE:

According to Derrida, the meaning changes because of the philosophy of absence.

a)    ___ ay

b)   ___ ay

c)    ___ ay

In the above three examples, the first letter is absent, which has the power to give different meanings to each word. We may use the letter “d”, “s” or “l” to give them different meanings.

4.   NO RELATION BETWEEN ‘SIGNIFIER’ & ‘SIGNIFIED’:

Structuralists believed that there is a relationship between “Signifier” (sound image) and “Signified” (received meaning).

But the poststructuralists like Lucan developed a theory that “Signifier” and “Signified” are not fixed and constant and hence they lead to different meanings at different times. Many a times, we speak something, but we mean something else. In the same manner, when we see a beautiful natural scene, we enjoy it at that moment. But there is no guarantee that we will enjoy the same scene with the same intensity after five minutes. Time changes, mood changes, light changes, everything changes even after a moment. So poststructuralists strongly believe that meaning does not depend on “sign” and “signifier”.

5.   NO BINARY OPPOSITION:

Structuralism believed that there is a binary (two sided) relationship between everything in this world. We understand darkness only because we have seen the light. Someone is rich because some other person is poor. We say a table is small because it is not big.

But poststructuralists have an opposite view; they hold the idea that there is actually no binary opposition. For example, “Private Vs Public”. In today’s time of technology, there is nothing “Private”. Take another example, “Male Vs Female”. A male may have feminine qualities and in the same manner a female may have some masculine qualities. Take another example, “Light Vs Dark”. We may change the night into a day and a day into a night with the help of technology and science in the modern times. Hence, Derrida rejects the idea of binary opposition.

6.   WRITING IS SUPERIOR TO SPEECH:

Structuralists opined that speech is superior to writing. They argued that a child first learns “speaking” skill and then he learns the “writing” skill. But Derrida holds the view that “writing” comes first than “speaking”. According to him, the child first of all writes in his mind that so and so person is his father, and then he calls him as “father”. Hence, we may say that “speech” comes next, first comes “writing”. In fact, we may say that “speech” and “writing” are complementary to each other.

CONCLUSION:

In nutshell, we may summarize the whole discussion by saying that Jacques Derrida propounded the theory of post structuralism which was an offshoot and reaction against structuralism. It began with Derrida’s lecture on ‘Structure, Sign and Play’ in 1966. Roland Barthes, Lucan, Judith Butler and others were the major followers of post structuralism and deconstruction.

Derrida holds the argument that there is no single or fixed meaning of the text. The author’s intended meaning has nothing to do with the text. The author is dead once he finishes his creation. Meaning depends on the reader, his circumstances, and his social and cultural brought up. A deconstructive critic criticizes the text b using rhetorical, etymological and figurative analysis and then comes out with newer interpretations. As a result, there are always multiple meanings of the same text.